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. Write an essay in which you argue which claims represent the strongest support for ensuring African Americans' right to vote. It is true that a strong plea for equal suffrage might be addressed to the national sense of honor. His address, given in January 1867 in Washington, D.C., during the Congressional debate on black male voting in the territories, appears below. 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. Disguise it as we may, we are still a divided nation. 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. Request Permissions. We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. 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. Antimetabole. As a nation, we cannot afford to have amongst us either this indifference and stupidity, or that burning sense of wrong. How do the following sentences from paragraph 7 fit into the logic of Douglass's appeal? 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. Was not the nation stronger when two hundred thousand sable soldiers were hurled against the Rebel fortifications, than it would have been without them? A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. 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. But no such appeal shall be relied on here. Something, too, might be said of national gratitude. 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. It is a measure of relief, a shield to break the force of a blow already descending with violence, and render it harmless. The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar. 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. 1973 Taylor & Francis, Ltd. But suffrage for the negro, while easily sustained upon abstract principles, demands consideration upon what are recognized as the urgent necessities of the case. We have thus far only gained a Union without unity, marriage without love, victory without peace. Unit 3 Test: Selected and Short Response Flashcards | Quizlet A character is demanded of him, and here as elsewhere demand favors supply. 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. The South does not now ask for slavery. In a word, it must enfranchise the negro, and by means of the loyal negroes and the loyal white men of the South build till 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. This evil principle again seeks admission into our body politic. The last and shrewdest turn of Southern politics is a recognition of the necessity of getting into Congress immediately, and at any price. It is nothing against this reasoning that all men who vote are not good men or good citizens. 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. There is that, all over the South, which frightens Yankee industry, capital, and skill from its borders. The ploughshare of rebellion has gone through the land beam-deep. What, then, is the work before Congress? The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage :: :: University of 112-117. This ends the case. 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? 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? Statesmen, beware what you do. Return to the Frederick Douglass library "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" | Library of Congress They are able, vigilant, devoted. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. 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. 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. It is supported by reasons as broad as the nature of man, and as numerous as the wants of society. Douglass, Anna Murray, -1882, - 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. 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. We have crushed the Rebellion, but not its hopes or its malign purposes. Can that statesmanship be wise which would leave the negro good ground to hesitate, when the exigencies of the country required his prompt assistance? Impartial history will paint them as men who deserved well of their country. Will you repeat the mistake of your fathers, who sinned ignorantly? Foreign countries abound with his agents. 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? ? For better or for worse, (as in some of the old marriage ceremonies,) the negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. win the trust of an increasingly mistrustful electorate. History is said to repeat itself, and, if so, having wanted the negro once, we may want him again. African American newspapers--New York (State)--Rochester, - 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. From "Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" - Brainly If these bless them, they are blest indeed; but if these blast them, they are blasted indeed. 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.
March 22, 1964 Speech In St Louis,
Overtime Calculation In Ethiopia Examples,
Walking Distance From Times Square To Rockefeller Center,
Articles A
appeal to congress for impartial suffrage answer key