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lyra s place ghure barano lyra s place ghure barano frederick douglass speech on the 4th of july july 4 2008 leave a comment fellow citizens i am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic the signers of the declaration of independence were brave men they were great men too great enough to give frame to a great age it does not often happen to a nation to raise at one time such a number of truly great men the point from which i am compelled to view them is not certainly the most favorable and yet i cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration they were statesmen patriots and heroes and for the good they did and the principles they contended for i will unite with you to honor their memory fellow citizens pardon me allow me to ask why am i called upon to speak here to day what have i or those i represent 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 the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us would to god both for your sakes and ours that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful for who is there so cold that a nation s sympathy could not warm him who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation s jubilee when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs i am not that man in a case like that the dumb might eloquently speak and the lame man leap as an hart but such is not the state of the case i say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us i am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us the blessings in which you this day 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 light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me this fourth 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 irony do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak to day if so there is a parallel to your conduct and let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes towering up to heaven were thrown down by the breath of the almighty burying that nation in irrevocable ruin i can to day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe smitten people by the rivers of babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembered zion we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof for there they that carried us away captive required of us a song and they who wasted us required of us mirth saying sing us one of the songs of zion how can we sing the lord s song in a strange land if i forget thee 0 jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if i do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth fellow citizens above your national tumultuous joy i hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday are to day rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them if i do forget if i do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth to forget them to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking and would make me a reproach before god and the world my subject then fellow citizens is american slavery i shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave s point of view standing there identified with the american bondman making his wrongs mine i do not hesitate to declare with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of july whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting america is false to the past false to the present and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future standing with god and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion i will in the name of humanity which is outraged in the name of liberty which is fettered in the name of the constitution and the bible which are disregarded and trampled upon dare to call in question and to denounce with all the emphasis i can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery ñ the great sin and shame of america i will not equivocate i will not excuse i will use the severest language i can command and yet not one word shall escape me that any man whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice or who is not at heart a slaveholder shall not confess to be right and just but i fancy i hear some one of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind would you argue more an denounce less would you persuade more and rebuke less your cause would be much more likely to succeed but i submit where all is plain there is nothing to be argued what point in the anti slavery creed would you have me argue on what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light must i undertake to prove that the slave is a man that point is conceded already nobody doubts it the slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government they acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave there are seventy two crimes in the state of virginia which if committed by a black man no matter how ignorant he be subject him to the punishment of death while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment what is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral intellectual and responsible being the manhood of the slave is conceded it is admitted in the fact that southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding under severe fines and penalties the teaching of the slave to read or to write when you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field then i may consent to argue the manhood of the slave when the dogs in your streets when the fowls of the air when the cattle on your hills when the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute then will i argue with you that the slave is a man for the present it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the negro race is it not astonishing that while we are ploughing planting and reaping using all kinds of mechanical tools erecting houses constructing bridges building ships working in metals of brass iron copper silver and gold that while we are reading writing and ciphering acting as clerks merchants and secretaries having among us lawyers doctors ministers poets authors editors orators and teachers that while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men digging gold in california capturing the whale in the pacific feeding sheep and cattle on the hill side living moving acting thinking planning living in families as husbands wives and children and above all confessing and worshipping the christian s god and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave we are called upon to prove that we are men would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty that he is the rightful owner of his own body you have already declared it must i argue the wrongfulness of slavery is that a question for republicans is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation as a matter beset with great difficulty involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice hard to be understood how should i look to day in the presence of amercans dividing and subdividing a discourse to show that men have a natural right to freedom speaking of it relatively and positively negatively and affirmatively to do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding there is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him what am i to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes to rob them of their liberty to work them without wages to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men to beat them with sticks to flay their flesh with the lash to load their limbs with irons to hunt them with dogs to sell them at auction to sunder their families to knock out their teeth to burn their flesh to starve them into obedience and submission to their mastcrs must i argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong no i will not i have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply what then remains to be argued is it that slavery is not divine that god did not establish it that our doctors of divinity are mistaken there is blasphemy in the thought that which is inhuman cannot be divine who can reason on such a proposition they that can may i cannot the time for such argument is passed at a time like this scorching irony not convincing argument is needed o had i the ability and could reach the nation s ear i would to day pour out a fiery stream of biting 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 and the earthquake the feeling 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 its crimes against god and man must be proclaimed and denounced what to the american slave is your 4th of july i answer a day that reveals to him more than all other days in 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 sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence 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 which would disgrace a nation of savages there is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the united states at this very hour continue reading frederick douglass speech on the 4th of july posted in uncategorized the gulabi gang june 14 2008 leave a comment women get together in a poor up town to fight corruption and men who abuse or abandon women posted in uncategorized women s activism pages about archives july 2008 june 2008 categories uncategorized 2 women s activism 1 blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed lyra s place sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy lyra s place subscribe subscribed sign up log in report this content view site in reader manage subscriptions collapse this bar design a site like this with wordpress com get started