The answers to these questions are too obvious to require statement. It may be traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood. Yet the negroes have marvelously 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. Frederick Douglass: An Appeal To Congress For Impartial Suffrage 753 Words | 4 Pages. 3 0 obj It is no less a crime against the manhood of a man, to declare that he shall not share in the making and directing of the government under which he lives, than to say that he shall not acquire property and education. endobj If the doctrine that taxation should go hand in hand with representation can be appealed to in behalf of recent traitors and rebels, may it not properly be asserted in behalf of a people who have ever been loyal and faithful to the government? 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. What O'Connell said of the history of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negro's. Nor can we afford to endure the moral blight which the existence of a degraded and hated class must necessarily inflict upon any people among whom such a class may exist. There is but one safe and constitutional way to banish that mischievous hope from the South, and that is by lifting the laborer beyond the unfriendly political designs of his former master. Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,--are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? Disfranchise them, and the mark of Cain is set upon them less mercifully than upon the first murderer, for no man was to hurt him. 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. As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. 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. Douglass, Lewis, 1840-1908--Correspondence, - SURVEY. So Just, Speeches on Social Justice, available at: http://www.sojust.net/speeches/frederickdouglas_appeal.html. 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. 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" Contributor Names Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 Created / Published January-April 1881 Subject Headings - Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 . 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. It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor. A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. 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. The dreadful calamities of the past few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. United States--Politics and government--19th century, - 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. In 1867 Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist and civil rights leader, weighed in on one of the most contentious issues of the day, suffrage for black men following the Civil War. If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks. Exclude the negroes as a class from political rights,teach 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. Here they are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here they must remain. 1 0 obj Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. Weve gathered dozens of the most important pieces from our archives on race and racism in America. The new wine must be put into new bottles. The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. 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? Civil rights, - The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. Q. It was a war of the rich against the poor. You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. There is that, all over the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. They who waged it had no objection to the government, while they could use it as a means of confirming their power over the laborer. 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? 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. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. Freedom of speech and of the press it slowly but successfully banished from the South, dictated its own code of honor and manners to the nation, brandished the bludgeon and the bowie-knife over Congressional debate, sapped the foundations of loyalty, dried up the springs of patriotism, blotted out the testimonies of the fathers against oppression, padlocked the pulpit, expelled liberty from its literature, invented nonsensical theories about master-races and slave-races of men, and in due season produced a Rebellion fierce, foul, and bloody. Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor. 3 !1AQa"q2B#$Rb34rC%Scs5&DTdEt6UeuF'Vfv7GWgw 5 !1AQaq"2B#R3$brCScs4%&5DTdEU6teuFVfv'7GWgw ? It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. If black men have no rights in the eyes of white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks. Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in their own hands. In a word, it must enfranchise the negro, and by means of the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build till 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. JFIF H H Exif MM * b j( 1 r2 i Is not Austria wise in removing all ground of complaint against her on the part of Hungary? Man . Is the existence of a rebellious element in our borderswhich 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 sworda reason for leaving four millions of the nations truest friends with just cause of complaint against the Federal government? An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage "Statesmen, beware what you do. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906--Correspondence, - Enfranchise them, and they become self-respecting and country-loving citizens. King Cotton is deposed, but only deposed, and is ready to-day to reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity. We want the cheerful activity of the quickened manhood of these sable millions. What, then, is the work before Congress? 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. Look across the sea. But in a country like ours, where men of all nations, kindred, and tongues are freely enfranchised, and allowed to vote, to say to the negro, You shall not vote, is to deal his manhood a staggering blow, and to burn into his soul a bitter and goading sense of wrong, or else work in him a stupid indifference to all the elements of a manly character. If the doctrine that taxation should go hand in hand with representation can be appealed to in behalf of recent traitors and rebels, may it not properly be asserted in behalf of a people who have ever been loyal and faithful to the government? We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. What does the following sentence from the essay An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage by Frederick Douglas depict Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country 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 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. 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. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law. Hardships, services, sufferings, and sacrifices are all waived. It only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no political rights. What, then, is the work before Congress? Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. 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. 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? Visit American Literature's American History section for other important historical documents and figures which helped shape America. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. Anthony, Susan B. For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. While nothing may be urged here as to the past services of the negro, it is quite within the line of this appeal to remind the nation of the possibility that a time may come when the services of the negro may be a second time required. repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines of poetry.
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