July 5th, 1852. Speech at the Rochester NY ladies anti-slavery
society.
Fellow citizens,
Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called
upon to speak here today?
What have I or those I represent have to do with
your national independence? Are the great principles of
political freedom and of natural justice embodied in
that declaration of independence extended to us, and
am I therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering
to the national altar and to confess their benefits?
To express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting
from your independence to us?
I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary.
Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance
between us. The blessings in which you today rejoice are not
enjoyed in common.
The rich inheritance of Justice, Liberty, Prosperity and
Independence, bequeathed by your fathers is shared
by you not by me.
The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought
stripes and death to me. This fourth of July is yours, not mine.
You may rejoice, I must mourn.
To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of
liberty, and call upon him to join you in
joyous anthems were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious agony!
Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?
What, to the american slave, is your fourth of July?
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. To him, your celebration
is a sham, your boasted liberty, an unholy license,
your national greatness, swelling vanity, your sound of
rejoicing are empty and heartless, your denunciation of tyrants,
brass founded impedance, your shouts of liberty and
equality, hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns,
your sermons and thanksgivings with all your religious
parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud,
deception, impiety and hypocrisy, a thin veil to
cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages.
There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices
more shocking and bloody than are the people of
these United States at this very hour. At a time like this,
scorching irony not convincing argument is
needed.
O have I the ability and could reach the nation's ear ?
I would today pour forth a fiery stream of biding
ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm and stern rebuke,
for it is not light that is needed, but fire. It is not the gentle
shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind,
the earthquake, the feeding of the nation must be quickened,
the conscience of the nation must be roused, the propriety of
the nation must be startled, the hypocrisy of the nation must
be exposed and the crimes against God and
man must be proclaimed and denounced.
Frederick Douglas
author of Under Fire. The book is available on Amazon.com.
What to the slave is the 4th of July?
Mr. president, friends and fellow citizens,
He who could address this audience without a quell in sensation has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more strikingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability than I do this day.
A feeling has crept just over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me, is one which requires more previous thought and study for its proper performance.
I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease ? My appearance would much misrepresent me.
The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings in country schoolhouses avails me nothing on the present occasion. The papers and placards say that I am to deliver a fourth of July oration. This certainly sounds large and out of the common way for me.
It is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful home and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But, neither with their familiar faces, nor the perfect gauge I think I have of Corinthian Hall seems to free me from embarrassment.
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 overcomed in getting from the latter to the former are, by no means, slight.
That I am here today is to me a matter of astonishment was well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised if and what I have to say, I advanced no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exhortium.
With little experience, and with less learning I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together and trusted to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the fourth of July. It is the birthday of your national independence and of your political freedom. This to you is what the Passover is to the emancipated people of God. 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 in that day.
This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life, and reminds you that the republic of America is now seventy-six years old...
Transcription by Weiner Marthone
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