Frederick Douglass

Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would to-day pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

Must I argue that a system, thus marked with blood and stained with pollution, is wrong?

The right of speech, precious and priceless, cannot, will not, be surrendered to slavery.

Standing there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July.

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them.

Everybody, in the south, wants the privilege of whipping somebody else.

And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin!

Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?

The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.

The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.

For diseases of the body, Epsom salts and castor oil; for those of the soul, the Lord’s Prayer, and hickory switches!

The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.