It may be traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood. 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. Look across the sea. 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. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. 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? Statesmen of America! "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" | Library of Congress Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. 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. 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. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit. ' Is not Austria wise in removing all ground of complaint against her on the part of Hungary? It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. A nation might well hesitate before the temptation to betray its allies. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. 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. 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. 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. Hardships, services, sufferings, and sacrifices are all waived. By the 1890s Douglass, aging and in ill health but still out on the lecture circuit . Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. or will you profit by the blood-bought wisdom all round you, and forever expel every vestige of the old abomination from our national borders? The lamb may not be trusted with the wolf. History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. 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. Which of the following sentences from the essay "An Appeal - Kunduz Reconstruction, and an Appeal to Impartial Suffrage Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. JFIF H H Exif MM * b j( 1 r2 i 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. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. The answer plainly is, they see in this policy the only hope of saving something of their old sectional peculiarities and power. They are able, vigilant, devoted. Something, too, might be said of national gratitude. 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. Abolitionists, - Four specific "thesis" ideas: 1. Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago, are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? Review Us. SURVEY. 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. an appeal to congress for impartial suffrage .docx - Course Hero 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? 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. As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. 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. 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? It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor. You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. 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. For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources. 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. 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. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. It is plain that, if the right belongs to any, it belongs to all. Page includes two illustrations showing African Americans celebrating the abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C. and portrait of Henry A. Smythe, newly appointed Collector of Customs of New York; also includes articles http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms000009.mss11879.00602, View Frederick Douglass Papers Finding Aid, Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, 1846 to 1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881 to 1887, Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress. Oak Ridge High School 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike Oak Ridge, TN 37830. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. My Escape from Slavery. <> win the trust of an increasingly mistrustful electorate. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black man's arm to make us stronger. 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. 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. Civil rights, - A very limited statement of the argument for impartial suffrage, and for including the negro in the body politic, would require more space than can be reasonably asked here. All this and more is true of these loyal negroes. But no such an appeal shall be relied on here. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage - The Atlantic Do you find this information helpful? You shudder to-day at the harvest of blood sown in the spring-time of the Republic by your patriot fathers. The contents of The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress are in the public domain and are free to use and reuse. But upon none of these things is reliance placed. 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. We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. They are too numerous and useful to be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. Assing, Ottilie--Correspondence, - 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. United States, series: Speech, Article, and Book File, 1846-1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881-1887. Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. In fact, all the elements of treason and rebellion are there under the thinnest disguise which necessity can impose. 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. Here they are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here they must remain. 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. For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. ? 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. 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. It was a war of the rich against the poor. We want no longer any heavy- footed, melancholy service from the negro. Douglass, Lewis, 1840-1908--Correspondence, -
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