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. It must cause national ideas and objects to take the lead and control the politics of those States. King Cotton is deposed, but only deposed, and is ready to-day to reassert all his ancient pretensions upon the first favorable opportunity. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. beware what you do. 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. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage by Frederick Douglass An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage was published in the Atlantic Monthly, Issue 19, January 1867, pp. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. What OConnell said of the history of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negros. Manuscript/Mixed Material. It is enough that the possession and exercise of the elective franchise is in itself an appeal to the nobler elements of But of this let nothing be said in this place. It may be "traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood." 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. So Just, Speeches on Social Justice, available at: http://www.sojust.net/speeches/frederickdouglas_appeal.html. It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law. 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. What O'Connell said of the history of Ireland may with greater truth be said of the negro's. 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. They now stand before Congress and the country, not complaining of the past, but simply asking for a better future. 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. 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. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. . by noting that the economy has greatly benefited from African- Americans' labor . by citing the community improvements that have resulted from African-Americans' charitable activities %PDF-1.4 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. We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. African Americans--Washington (D.C.), - 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. Anthony, Susan B. The American people can, perhaps, afford to brave the censure of surrounding nations for the manifest injustice and meanness of excluding its faithful black soldiers from the ballot-box, but it cannot afford to allow the moral and mental energies of rapidly increasing millions to be consigned to hopeless degradation. mobilize voters with a declining sense of internal political efficacy. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands. But upon none of these things is reliance placed. Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. Their history is parallel to that of the country; but while the history of the latter has been cheerful and bright with blessing, theirs has been heavy and dark with agonies and curses. The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. 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? 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. Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. 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. A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. The answers to these questions are too obvious to require statement. In a pair of Atlantic articles in 1866 and '67, Douglass addressed members of the 39th session of Congress, urging them to give black Americans the right to vote. 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. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. 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. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage :: :: University of 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. Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago,--are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" Contributor Names Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 Created / Published January-April 1881 Subject Headings - Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 . 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. Frederick Douglass's Vision for a Reborn America - The Atlantic Loyalty is hardly safe with traitors. _E/sZ@)m"\ kAk> ,?/. As you members of the Thirty-ninth Congress decide, will the country be peaceful, united, and happy, or troubled, divided, and miserable. an appeal to congress for impartial suffrage .docx - Course Hero It early mastered the Constitution, became superior to the Union, and enthroned itself above the law. The soil is in readiness, and the seedtime has come. Page 1 of "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879--Correspondence, - answer choices the president of the United States. Draz, Rosine Ame--Correspondence, - 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. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. 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. 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. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands." By Frederick Douglass AP January 1867 Issue Saved. Manuscripts, - her fellow suffragettes. 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 was a war of the rich against the poor. It is to save the people of the South from themselves, and the nation from detriment on their account. 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. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage "Statesmen, beware what you do. Read the next essay; 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. There is that, all over the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. What, then, is the work before Congress? Caption title. Arming the negro was an urgent military necessity three years ago, are we sure that another quite as pressing may not await us? 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. This ends the case. The contents of The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress are in the public domain and are free to use and reuse. Women's rights, - 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. 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. Congress must supplant the evident sectional tendencies of the South by national dispositions and tendencies. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" | Library of Congress What, then, is the work before Congress? Credit Line: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress, More about Copyright and other Restrictions. 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. Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage - Frederick Douglass 1867 [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mss1187900602/. Four specific "thesis" ideas: 1. It will swallow all the unconstitutional test oaths, repeal all the ordinances of Secession, repudiate the Rebel debt, promise to pay the debt incurred in conquering its people, pass all the constitutional amendments, if only it can have the negro left under its political control. 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. Antimetabole. But of this let nothing be said in this place. 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? 5 0 obj Can that be sound statesmanship which leaves millions of men in gloomy discontent, and possibly in a state of alienation in the day of national trouble? The answers to these questions are too obvious to require statement. Douglass, Lewis, 1840-1908--Correspondence, - Oak Ridge High School 1450 Oak Ridge Turnpike Oak Ridge, TN 37830. 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 Masses of men can take care of themselves. National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. But no such an appeal shall be relied on here. End of preview Upload your study docs or become a member. 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. From "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" - Brainly Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. 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 idea and objects can take full possession of the Southern mind. Many daring exploits will be told to their credit. 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. Look across the sea. Masses of men can take care of themselves. 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, - National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. They fought the government, not because they hated the government as such, but because they found it, as they thought, in the way between them and their one grand purpose of rendering permanent and indestructible their authority and power over the Southern laborer. 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