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? These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage. 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 lamb may not be trusted with the wolf. Q. 1 0 obj History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black man's arm to make us stronger. (1957) Roy Wilkins, The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back, African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of 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. 865-425-9601. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenseless, the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinence to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. These sable millions are too powerful to be allowed to remain either indifferent or discontented. Richardson family--Correspondence, - Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenceless,--the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? Go here for more about FrederickDouglass' Appeal toCongress for ImpartialSuffrage. appeal to moderate voters despite the parties' ideological orientation. beware of what you do. The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. 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. 30 seconds. Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879--Correspondence, - So Just, Speeches on Social Justice, available at: http://www.sojust.net/speeches/frederickdouglas_appeal.html. Something, too, might be said of national gratitude. Write an essay in which you argue which claims represent the strongest support for ensuring African Americans' right to vote. Wagoner, Henry O.--Correspondence, - As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. 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. Question 4 60 seconds Q. Carrie Chapman uses the words of which historical men to persuade to congress to allow women to vote? 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. 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. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. 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. 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. 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. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? 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. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. Men are so constituted that they largely derive their ideas of their abilities and their possibilities from the settled judgments of their fellow-men, and especially from such as they read in the institutions under which they live. The result is a war of races, and the annihilation of all proper human relations. But no such appeal shall be relied on here. the repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. 3 !1AQa"q2B#$Rb34rC%Scs5&DTdEt6UeuF'Vfv7GWgw 5 !1AQaq"2B#R3$brCScs4%&5DTdEU6teuFVfv'7GWgw ? Return to the Frederick Douglass library 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. % The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands." By Frederick Douglass AP January 1867 Issue Saved. 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? Weve gathered dozens of the most important pieces from our archives on race and racism in America. For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources. 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. 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. Foreign countries abound with his agents. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of manhood, and imposes education as essential to the safety of society. <> Source: Source unknown. 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. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? Something then, not by way of argument, (for that has been done by Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens, Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith, and other able men,) but rather of statement and appeal. These sable millions are too powerful to be allowed to remain either indifferent or discontented. We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. 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? 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. It must cause national ideas and objects to take the lead and control the politics of those States. Look across the sea. "Frederick Douglass (African American abolitionist and civil right 's leader), "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," January 1867". It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. 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. African American Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress). 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 It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the nation from detriment on their account. To make peace with our enemies is all well enough; but to prefer our enemies and sacrifice our friends,to exalt our enemies and cast down our friends,to clothe our enemies, who sought the destruction of the government, with all political power, and leave our friends powerless in their hands,is an act which need not be characterized here. His right to a participation in the production and operation of government is in inference from his nature, as direct and self-evident as is his right to acquire property or education. We want no longer any heavy- footed, melancholy service from the negro. As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. her fellow suffragettes. The text argues that the central problem of the parties today is how to. 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. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" Contributor Names Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 Created / Published January-April 1881 Subject Headings - Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 . Yet, as Douglass explains, citizenship has no meaning without the right to vote. Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country. The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. 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. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906--Correspondence, - It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit. Statesmen of America! The first primary source on Frederick Douglass. Waiving humanity, national honor, the claims of gratitude, the precious satisfaction arising from deeds of charity and justice to the weak and defenceless,the appeal for impartial suffrage addresses itself with great pertinency to the darkest, coldest, and flintiest side of the human heart, and would wring righteousness from the unfeeling calculations of human selfishness. You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law. 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? African Americans--Washington (D.C.), - Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago, are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? 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. His address, given in January 1867 in Washington, D.C., during the Congressional debate on black male voting in the territories, appears below. 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? 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. For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the nation from detriment on their account. It must cease to recognize the old slave-masters as the only competent persons to rule the South. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. It may be "traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood." This ends the case. 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. <> And does not the Emperor of Russia act wisely, as well as generously, when he not only breaks up the bondage of the serf, but extends him all the advantages of Russian citizenship? Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. There is that, all over the south, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. Massachusetts and South Carolina may draw tears from the eyes of our tender-hearted President by walking arm in arm into his Philadelphia Convention, but a citizen of Massachusetts is still an alien in the Palmetto State. 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. 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 no longer any heavy- footed, melancholy service from the negro. 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. He is a man, and by every fact and argument by which any man can sustain his right to vote, the negro can sustain his right equally. In its pages African American studies intellectuals, community activists, and national and international political leaders come to grips with basic issues confronting black America and Africa. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" in The Atlantic Monthly, 19 (January, 1867) Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876) My Escape from Slavery (1881) . It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black mans arm to make us stronger. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mss1187900602/. The principle of slavery, which they tolerated under the erroneous impression that it would soon die out, became at last the dominant principle and power at the South. a comparison between two different things. 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. 1881. But of this let nothing be said in this place. History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are there under the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose.
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