What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands.. Frederick Douglass with his second wife Helen Pitts and her sister Eva Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, 1846-1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Union and liberty : powers of Congress in relation to the slaves, with a form of Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia by the colored people, in Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, 1846-1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881-1887; "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," 1881, - It will tell how they forded and swam rivers, with what consummate address they evaded the sharp-eyed Rebel pickets, how they toiled in the darkness of night through the tangled marshes of briers and thorns, barefooted and weary, running the risk of losing their lives, to warn our generals of Rebel schemes to surprise and destroy our loyal army. It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but for their help,--divided as the loyal States were,--the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable calamity. But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? It is a measure of relief, a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage. As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. However, I noticed that all three sources relate to three civil right movements and they are all trying to help the black community. The hope of gaining by politics what they lost by the sword, is the secret of all this Southern unrest; and that hope must be extinguished before national ideas and objects can take full possession of the Southern mind. Is Ireland, in her present condition, fretful, discontented, compelled to support an establishment in which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of her people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? Casting aside all thought of justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to make him equal sharer in all sacrifices for the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript him in war, and then coldly exclude him from the ballot-box? It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. By the 1890s Douglass, aging and in ill health but still out on the lecture circuit . The doctrine that some men have no rights that others are bound to respect, is a doctrine which we must banish as we have banished slavery, from which it emanated. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once a powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among men. Once firmly seated in Congress, their alliance with Northern Democrats re-established, their States restored to their former position inside the Union, they can easily find means of keeping the Federal government entirely too busy with other important matters to pay much attention to the local affairs of the Southern States. %PDF-1.4 Peace to the country has literally meant war to the loyal men of the South, white and black; and negro suffrage is the measure to arrest and put an end to that dreadful strife. Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country. But this mark of inferiority--all the more palpable because of a difference of color--not only dooms the negro to be a vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. , or . African American newspapers--New York (State)--Rochester, - As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. It will tell how these poor people, whose rights we still despised, behaved to our wounded soldiers, when found cold, hungry, and bleeding on the deserted battlefield; how they assisted our escaping prisoners from Andersonville, Belle Isle, Castle Thunder, and elsewhere, sharing with them their wretched crusts, and otherwise affording them aid and comfort; how they promptly responded to the trumpet call for their services, fighting against a foe that denied them the rights of civilized warfare, and for a government which was without the courage to assert those rights and avenge their violation in their behalf; with what gallantry they flung themselves upon Rebel fortifications, meeting death as fearlessly as any other troops in the service. We asked the negroes to espouse our cause, to be our friends, to fight for us and against their masters; and now, after they have done all that we asked them to do, helped us to conquer their masters, and thereby directed toward themselves the furious hate of the vanquished, it is proposed in some quarters to turn them over to the political control of the common enemy of the government and of the negro. This ends the case. A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. Question 4 60 seconds Q. Carrie Chapman uses the words of which historical men to persuade to congress to allow women to vote? Their history is parallel to that of the country; but while the history of the latter has been cheerful and bright with blessings, theirs has been heavy and dark with agonies and curses. The Amistad Case (1841) The Weeping Time, March 3, 1859 Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage by Frederick Douglass (January 1867) These three primary source documents each deal with the decline of slavery in the United States. Abolitionists, - Does any sane man doubt for a moment that the men who followed Jefferson Davis through the late terrible Rebellion, often marching barefooted and hungry, naked and penniless, and who now only profess an enforced loyalty, would plunge this country into a foreign war to-day, if they could thereby gain their coveted independence, and their still more coveted mastery over the negroes? To appreciate the full force of this argument, it must be observed, that disfranchisement in a republican government based upon the idea of human equality and universal suffrage, is a very different thing from disfranchisement in governments based upon the idea of the divine right of kings, or the entire subjugation of the masses. beware what you do. Is the existence of a rebellious element in our borders--which New Orleans, Memphis, and Texas show to be only disarmed, but at heart as malignant as ever, only waiting for an opportunity to reassert itself with fire and sword--a reason for leaving four millions of the nation's truest friends with just cause of complaint against the Federal government? Oak Ridge High School 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike Oak Ridge, TN 37830. ----, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," (January 1867). It is true that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the only reliable friends the nation had throughout the whole tremendous war. They are able, vigilant, devoted. If these bless them, they are blest indeed; but if these blast them, they are blasted indeed. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you at once destroy the purely sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with national interests and national objects. But of this let nothing be said in this place. It is a measure of relief,a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. Will you repeat the mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? Casting aside all thought of justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to make him equal sharer in all sacrifices for the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript him in war, and then coldly exclude him from the ballot-box? Statesmen, beware what you do. _E/sZ@)m"\ kAk> ,?/. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no political rights. Yet the negroes have marvellously survived all the exterminating forces of slavery, and have emerged at the end of two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving. From "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" Which best describes Douglass's main purpose? It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but for their help, divided as the loyal States were, the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable calamity. beware of what you do. Statesmen of America! 1881. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage." Atlantic Monthly 19 (Jan. 1867): 112-117. King Cotton is deposed, but only deposed, and is ready to-day to reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity. It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the nation from detriment on their account. The answer plainly is, they see in this policy the only hope of saving something of their old sectional peculiarities and power. Look across the sea. For in respect to this grand measure it is the good fortune of the negro that enlightened selfishness, not less than justice, fights on his side. There is something immeasurably mean, to say nothing of the cruelty, in placing the loyal negroes of the South under the political power of their Rebel masters. Weve gathered dozens of the most important pieces from our archives on race and racism in America. His right to a participation in the production and operation of government is an inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to acquire property or education. Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law. From "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" How does Douglass support his claim that African Americans have rendered a "score of past services" to the United States? Many daring exploits will be told to their credit. 20072023 Blackpast.org. endobj Man . We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. The Rebel States have still an anti-national policy. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage. It will tell how these poor people, whose rights we still despised, behaved to our wounded soldiers, when found cold, hungry, and bleeding on the deserted battle-field; how they assisted our escaping prisoners from Andersonville, Belle Isle, Castle Thunder, and elsewhere, sharing with them their wretched crusts, and otherwise affording them aid and comfort; how they promptly responded to the trumpet call for their services, fighting against a foe that denied them the rights of civilized warfare, and for a government which was without the courage to assert those rights and avenge their violation in their behalf; with what gallantry they flung themselves upon Rebel fortifications, meeting death as fearlessly as any other troops in the service. In a word, it must enfranchise the negro, and by means of the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build up a national party there, and in time bridge the chasm between North and South, so that our country may have a common liberty and a common civilization. The young men of the South burn with the desire to regain what they call the lost cause; the women are noisily malignant towards the Federal government. Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,--are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? the repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. It must cease to recognize the old slave-masters as the only competent persons to rule the South. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you at once destroy the purely sectional policy, and wheel the Southern States into line with national interests and national objects. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage by Frederick Douglass A very limited statement of the argu-ment for impartial suffrage, and for including the negro in the body politic, would require more space than can be reasonably asked here. Is Ireland, in her present condition, fretful, discontented, compelled to support an establishment in which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of her people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? There is something immeasurably mean, to say nothing of the cruelty, in placing the loyal negroes of the South under the political power of their Rebel masters. Orators, - Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black man's arm to make us stronger. The answers to these questions are too obvious to require statement. The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf. It is true that, notwithstanding their alleged ignorance, they were wiser than their masters, and knew enough to be loyal, while those masters only knew enough to be rebels and traitors. The spectacle of these dusky millions thus imploring, not demanding, is touching; and if American statesmen could be moved by a simple appeal to the nobler elements of human nature, if they had not fallen, seemingly, into the incurable habit of weighing and measuring every proposition of reform by some standard of profit and loss, doing wrong from choice, and right only from necessity or some urgent demand of human selfishness, it would be enough to plead for the negroes on the score of past services and sufferings. Antimetabole. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are there under the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose. Bassett, Ebenezer D., 1833-1908--Correspondence, - 30 seconds. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. Founded in 1969 and hailed by The New York Times as a journal in which the writings of many of todays finest black thinkers may be viewed, THE BLACK SCHOLAR has firmly established itself as the leading journal of black cultural and political thought in the United States and remains under the editorship of Robert Chrisman, Editor-In-Chief, Robert Allen, Senior Editor, and Maize Woodford, Executive Editor. Though the battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. Douglass, Helen, 1838-1903. Three years later, the . It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. King Cotton is deposed, but only deposed, and is ready to-day to reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. Exclude the negroes as a class from political rightsteach them that the high and manly privilege of suffrage is to be enjoyed by white citizens only, that they may bear the burdens of the state, but that they are to have no part in its direction or its honors, and you at once deprive them of one of the main incentives to manly character and patriotic devotion to the interests of the government; in a word, you stamp them as a degraded caste, you teach them to despise themselves, and all others to despise them. . Griffiths, Julia, -1895--Correspondence, - Peace to the country has literally meant war to the loyal men of the South, white and black; and negro suffrage is the measure to arrest and put an end to that dreadful strife. Give the negro the elective franchise, and you give him at once a powerful motive for all noble exertion, and make him a man among men. National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. To appreciate the full force of this argument, it must be observed, that disfranchisement in a republican government based upon the idea of human equality and universal suffrage, is a very different thing from disfranchisement in governments based upon the idea of the divine right of kings, or the entire subjugation of the masses. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. It is impossible at this point in time to rid African Americans from the country.2. Is Ireland, in her present condition, fretful, discontented, compelled to support an establishment in which she does not believe, and which the vast majority of her people abhor, a source of power or of weakness to Great Britain? Casting aside all thought of justice and magnanimity, is it wise to impose upon the negro all the burdens involved in sustaining government against foes within and foes without, to make him equal sharer in all sacrifices for the public good, to tax him in peace and conscript him in war, and then coldly exclude him from the ballot-box? Foreign countries abound with his agents. But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. Visit American Literature's American History section for other important historical documents and figures which helped shape America.
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