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. 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? But why are the Southerners so willing to make these sacrifices? 3 0 obj the repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negro. Image 1 of 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. 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. Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar. the king of England. But this mark of inferiority--all the more palpable because of a difference of color--not only dooms the negro to be a vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. The new wine must be put into new bottles. 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 nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. H H JFIF H H Adobe_CM Adobe d 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. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage :: :: University of Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? 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. Masses of men can take care of themselves. The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage - American Literature "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" Contributor Names Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 Created / Published January-April 1881 Subject Headings - Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 . But this mark of inferiorityall the more palpable because of a difference of colornot only dooms the negro to be a vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. LC copy formerly part of YA Collection: YA 15708. They are too numerous and useful to be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. Bassett, Ebenezer D., 1833-1908--Correspondence, - A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country. 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. 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. It is a measure of relief,--a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. It is impossible at this point in time to rid African Americans from the country.2. repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines of poetry. 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. 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. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Is the present movement in England in favor of manhood suffragefor the purpose of bringing four millions of British subjects into full sympathy and co-operation with the British governmenta wise and humane movement, or otherwise? But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. 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. 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. So Just, Speeches on Social Justice, available at: http://www.sojust.net/speeches/frederickdouglas_appeal.html. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. African American newspapers--New York (State)--Rochester, - The South does not now ask for slavery. 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. Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, -1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881 to 1887; "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," 1881. 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. Something, too, might be said of national gratitude. Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in their own hands. It is true that they came to the relief of the country at the hour of its extremest need. It may be "traced like a wounded man through a crowd, by the blood." It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. You have read "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" by 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. https://www.loc.gov/item/mss1187900602/. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. Loyalty is hardly safe with traitors. 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. These facts speak to the better dispositions of the human heart; but they seem of little weight with the opponents of impartial suffrage. Sprague, Rosetta Douglass--Correspondence, - Credit Line: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress, More about Copyright and other Restrictions. Strong as we are, we need the energy that slumbers in the black mans arm to make us stronger. Which of the following sentences from the essay "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" by Frederick Douglas indicates a claim by the writer? But this mark of inferiorityall the more palpable because of a difference of colornot only dooms the negro to be a vagabond, but makes him the prey of insult and outrage everywhere. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands." By Frederick Douglass AP January 1867 Issue Saved. Under the potent shield of State Rights, the game would be in their own hands. 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. A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. Man is the only government-making animal in the world. Though the battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage "Statesmen, beware what you do. 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. beware of what you do. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, -1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881 to 1887; "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," 1881. Douglass, F. (1881) Frederick Douglass Papers: Speech, Article, and Book File, -1894; Speeches, Articles, and Other Writings Attributed to Frederick or Helen Pitts Douglass, 1881 to 1887; "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," 1881. This ends the case. It is true that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the only reliable friends the nation had throughout the whole tremendous war. Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. It must cause national ideas and objects to take the lead and control the politics of those States. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. 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. 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. . 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 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. Webb family--Correspondence, - Statesmen, beware what you do. Caption title. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. But of this let nothing be said in this place. 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. , or . The South fought for perfect and permanent control over the Southern laborer. From "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" - Brainly They are too numerous and useful to be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. The work of destruction has already been set in motion all over the South. Though the battle is for the present lost, the hope of gaining this object still exists, and pervades the whole South with a feverish excitement. <> National interest and national duty, if elsewhere separated, are firmly united here. PDF An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffr age - ortn.edu the members of congress. Besides, the disabilities imposed upon all are necessarily without that bitter and stinging element of invidiousness which attaches to disfranchisement in a republic. 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 only asks for a large degraded caste, which shall have no political rights. Civil rights, - High School US History Reading - Slavery's Last Gasp 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. It comes now in shape of a denial of political rights to four million loyal colored people. All this and more is true of these loyal negroes. ' What is common to all works no special sense of degradation to any. Here they are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here they must remain. Loyalty is hardly safe with traitors. 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. It is true that, in many of the rebellious States, they were almost the only reliable friends the nation had throughout the whole tremendous war. 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? Plainly enough, the peace not less than the prosperity of this country is involved in the great measure of impartial suffrage. Find an answer to your question Language Development: Convention and Style-from "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," Frederick Douglass I need this pl NarminZan20 NarminZan20 01/07/2021 An abolitionist, writer and orator Frederick Douglass was the most important black American leader of the nineteenth century. Which of the following sentences from the essay "An - Physics - Kunduz Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as 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.

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